Canada exits team snowboard cross in quarterfinal

LIVIGNO – Canada’s bid to return to the podium in mixed team snowboard cross ended quickly Sunday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Éliot Grondin and Audrey McManiman failed to advance after placing fourth in their quarterfinal. Britain 1 and Australia 2 finished 1-2 to move on to the semifinals with Austria 1 in third.

Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine teamed up to win bronze in the first Olympic mixed team snowboard cross event four years ago in Beijing.

Britain 1, featuring Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale, won gold this time round, overtaking France 2. Italy 1 took silver, with the French settling for bronze.

It marked Britain’s first ever Olympic title in a snow sport as Banks and Nightingale added Olympic gold to the world title they won in 2023.

Both British riders had recorded disappointing results in their earlier individual snowboard cross competition with Bankes, a four-time Olympian, 13th and Nightingale 26th.

Sixteen teams competed in a knockout format, culminating in a four-team big final to decide the medals.

The men raced first, with the time gaps at the finish carried over to the women’s leg, which started in a staggered format based on those differences. The first woman across the line secured victory for her team.

Grondin, who won silver in the men’s snowboard cross event for the second games in a row, won his half of the team heat, edging Austria by five one-hundredths of a second. Britain and Australia were 1.09 and 1.46 seconds, respectively, behind the 24-year-old from Sainte-Marie, Que.

“The start wasn’t my best, but the rest was, for sure, a pretty good run,” said Grondin, of Sainte-Marie, Que.

“It goes fast. The blink of an eye,” he added.

McManiman started well and led for a stretch but got boxed out at one point as the field tightened up. She lost speed and position.

“I managed to avoid a crash at least, but it definitely slowed me down,” she said.

The 31-year-old from St-Ambroise-de-Kildare, Que., finished 17th in the women’s snowboard cross competition. McManiman, who was 11th four years in Beijing, has undergone three knee reconstructions during her career.

The 1,110-metre course at Livigno Snow Park featured a vertical drop of 154 metres.

The other two Canadian women’s snowboard cross competitors were unable to take part in these games.

O’Dine, a 28-year-old from Prince George, B.C., fractured a bone in her ankle during a fall in training Feb. 6.

The COC announced Feb. 2 that Tess Critchlow was also withdrawing due to injury. The 30-year-old from Big White, B.C., who had undergone knee surgery in September, was ninth in Pyeongchang in 2018 and sixth four years ago in Beijing.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2026.

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